Selection at Biggin '64, aged 17. The nice letter said I hadn't passed selection for Cranwell, and gave me a choice of trying again in a year or accepting a Direct-Entry Commission. I took the DEC route; in retrospect the right choice.
Sometimes other people can see things you can't. After the JP course, my instructor said quite plainly "you would kill yourself on a Lightning". Very disappointing to a 19 year-old, but now when I look at a Lightning in the museum, I know he was right. I went mil rotary, mil fixed-wing, airlines, and lived to tell the tale.